Vice Presidential Records at the National Archives
The Cheneys with the Gores on Inauguration Day on the North Portico of the White House, 1/20/2001. P88335, White House Photographer David Scull
Under the Presidential Records Act (PRA), the records of the Office of the Vice President are treated in the same manner as Presidential records and become subject to the Freedom of Information Act five years after the end of the administration. Prior to the PRA, Vice Presidential records were the personal property of the Vice Presidents. The Vice Presidential Collections include textual records, electronic records, audio-visual material, and artifacts.
The official Vice Presidential records of Albert Gore, Jr., Richard Cheney, Joseph Biden, and Michael Pence are preserved and made publicly available for research through the Archival Operations Division, a part of the National Archives and Records Administration. Researchers may view open and publicly available Gore, Cheney, Biden, and Pence Vice Presidential records in the main research room located in the National Archives Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC by appointment only. The staff of the Archival Operations Division is available for on-site reference assistance to researchers. Please email presidential.materials@nara.gov prior to your visit.
The official Vice Presidential records of George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle are preserved and made publicly available for research at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, TX. Researchers may view open and publicly available Bush and Quayle records by appointment. Please email library.bush@nara.gov prior to your visit.
There are also several Vice Presidential collections prior to George H.W. Bush at Presidential Libraries administered by the National Archives. However, Vice Presidential records from Charles Curtis to Walter Mondale, which are the remaining administrations represented by the National Archives’ Presidential Libraries, are widely dispersed at other institutions. View a list of where to find other Vice Presidential collections.